Blogger vs WordPress which platform is better? This has been a recurring question asked by many users of these two platforms. We have decided to deal with this question once and for all.
Note that this comparison is based on self-hosted WordPress and free Blogger platform; and not between WordPress.com and Blogger. Let’s go into the meat of the matter.
Table of Contents
- The ownership of each platform
- Control of platform
- Look and Feel
- Portability of Blogger vs WordPress
- Security of WordPress vs Blogger
- Level of support for each platform
- Set up
- Versatility
- Customization
- Software Updates
- Conclusion
The ownership of each platform
Blogger and its blogspot.com domain are both free services owned and controlled by the almighty Google. The disadvantage of this is that you do not have any control over this platform if you publish your blog on Blogger. Google can decide to shut down your blog and you will be left to start all over again. Your content is gone.
On the other hand, WordPress is an open source platform; which means the software is free. It is also self-hosted. You can have your domain name like www.myblog.com and host it. The advantage here is that you own the domain and the contents. You can decide to renew the ownership yearly or not.
Control of platform
Blogger has got limited control, unlike WordPress which has unlimited control. Blogger is not flexible because the tools available are limited. For instance, in WordPress you can use plugins to give your blog different features and make it a lot more useful; you do not have such luxury with Blogger. For example: In WordPress you have the ability to convert a blog to an online store with just a plugin. This is how flexible WordPress is.
Look and Feel
Let’s discuss the look and feel of these platforms. By “look and feel”, we are referring to appearance. Blogger has got very beautiful appearance but the constraint is that you cannot modify or extend it by adding more layouts on the default template. You just have to use the default template just the way it is.
For WordPress, it is easy to extend the layouts using a page builder plugin. You can find themes for different types of websites with WordPress; it’s not so for Blogger.
Portability of Blogger vs WordPress
You are at great risk when you use Blogger and you decide to move your content to another platform. For instance, moving Blogger to WordPress could make you lose a lot such as domain authority and your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ranking.
Whereas WordPress is super easy to move. You can easily move from one hosting platform to another with ease. You can even decide to change the domain name, yet, it will still be a jolly ride even if you want to move to another platform entirely.
Security of WordPress vs Blogger
One great advantage of using Blogger is that it is quite secure since it is powered by Google. They have enough server resources for the proper functioning of your blog. You don’t have to spend money to increase the disk space or bandwidth. You do not have to worry about backing up of your content. No worries about security too. Google basically takes care of all of that for you.
While WordPress is secure by default but you still have to add more security features so as to make sure that your blog has a multi-layered security. You have to back up your content because the web server can crash at any time and if that happens, you would just move your blog content to another web server. There are hundreds of plugins available to give your blog extra security when you are using WordPress.
Level of support for each platform
When it comes to support, what you get with Blogger is restricted. There is a forum and also documentation for Blogger users. Blogger’s support does not go beyond this.
WordPress, on the other hand, has a myriad of support for users. WordPress has a dynamic support system that is very active such as forums, documentation and an online support. You can easily get assistance from these various support options. Aside from that, you can also get excellent paid support if you are using a premium theme. There are also free themes with a wonderful support.
Set up
If we talk about how to set up these two platforms then it is a lot easier to configure a WordPress blog compared to Blogger. Once you have a hosted domain, you just install WordPress with one click and customize it. It’s that easy.
Blogger requires you to have an account before setting up. But a point to be noted is that you can have many blogs under one account.
Versatility
WordPress is very versatile than Blogger. With WordPress, you can convert a blog to an online store or add portfolios without any stress.
For Blogger, a default template can only be used for a specific purpose. To design an online store or a blog with Blogger, you have to choose a template made for it. Basically, you can’t convert a blog template to work as an online ecommerce store.
Customization
There are limitations when it comes to customizing Blogger but there are no limitations for WordPress. You have unfettered control over the appearance of your WordPress blog or website.
Software Updates
Updates are automatic in Blogger. For WordPress, there are some automatic updates but mostly you have to manually upgrade the version of your plugins and themes.
Conclusion
When you talk about WordPress vs Blogger, WordPress beats Blogger hands down in many ways. The flexibility of WordPress over Blogger is so outstanding. WordPress is the world’s most used platform powering more blogs and websites than any other platform.
The fact that you do not own Blogger as a platform is a great disadvantage. One major disadvantage of WordPress is that you have to buy a domain and hosting while Blogger costs you nothing.
One distinguished advantage of WordPress is that it is open source which means it is not owned by anyone and you do not have to depend on a company or organization to make it work, unlike Blogger where you have to depend on Google for everything.
WordPress gets better every day because there are communities of developers working on it while Blogger has not undergone any outstanding updates for some time.
Blogger vs WordPress; the choice is now yours. Good luck!